5 Great Online Image Editors For Use In Any Web Browser

We previously published a piece sharing five useful online photo editors, but frankly, options have exploded in the three years since then. With people now owning more devices and getting access to faster internet connections, relying on free, online alternatives to tradition software just makes sense. Here are five great online image editors that should work on any modern computer with a web browser.

1. Pixlr

Pixlr is a fantastic online image-editing suite brought to us by Autodesk, the company behind the well-known AutoCAD program. There are actually three separate programs included here – Pixlr Editor (pictured above), Pixlr Express, And Pixlr-O-Matic. Pixlr Editor is considered an advanced option that is the most similar option on this list to PhotoShop and Gimp. Pixlr Express is a more streamlined app that’s easier to fire up for quick edits, and it happens to also be very touch-friendly. Pixlr-O-Matic is good for applying filters and other quick photo edits. Much of this functionally can also be found in Pixlr Express, but as the webpage puts it, Pixlr-O-Matic is just more playful.

2. DeviantART Muro

DeviantArt is a popular community for artists. While I’ve never uploaded any content to the site, I’ve known about it for a long time now due to the great work that can be found buried among its pages. After a while, the team decided to put out an online app empowering users to create art from start to finish. DeviantART Muro begins with a blank slate and provides users with various brushes, layers, and effects to make their art come alive.

3. BeFunky

BeFunky is a less versatile option than the previous tool. This isn’t an app for putting together a quick sketch or creating sprites. It’s a photo editor that’s aimed explicitly at doing precisely that – editing photos. It comes with filters, resizing options, the ability to insert text, change colors, and the usual features we’ve come to expect when tweaking our photos. It has an easy-to-use interface and allows users to import images directly from Facebook, Flickr, Photobucket, and Picasa.

4. iPiccy

By default, iPiccy loads up a photo editing layout that should be immediately intuitive to anyone who has used such an app before. However, this offering comes with a list of tabs at the top that completely tweak the interface. Clicking on the “Painter” tab pulls up a UI that looks very similar to Pixlr Editor. It also has tabs for photo effects, touch-ups, frames, blending, and textures.

5. Psykopaint

Psykopaint is the most visual, animated app on this list. It supports uploading images off your hard drive or starting from scratch. There are options for changing your brush size, paint color, layers, and other things. With each selection, the corresponding element of the UI slides in and out. Once you start painting, the UI moves out of the way, leaving just the white paper on a wooden background. It’s great to watch and fun to use.

Final Thoughts

With network speeds improving and web browsers becoming more powerful, more and more tasks that used to require offline software are moving to the web. When it comes to image editing, the options are plentiful. If you ever find that you need to edit an image on someone else’s computer, you don’t want to spend money on software, or you happen to use a Chromebook as your primary machine, save the URLs to these online apps and whip them out whenever you need them. If you already have a favorite online image editor, share it with us below.